For months IT resellers and solution providers have been looking for answers about how to access economic stimulus funds available as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help pay for IT projects at client sites.  

In answer to that, several vendors and distributors have been working on programs to help their IT reseller and solution provider channel partners get access to the right information and agencies. Distributor Tech Data released Economic Stimulus Watch, an initiative that the company says will help resellers track the billions of dollars in IT spending available for IT projects starting as early as this summer.

Tech Data says that its Economic Stimulus Watch Web resource center aggregate Tech Data's product knowledge, technical expertise and public-sector sales support. In addition, it will provide an interactive forum in which resellers can post questions and comments, as well as communicate with Tech Data systems engineers, credit specialists and other members of the team for bid and pricing support.

Tech Data says this resource center also will include the updates on ARRA, links to federal and state government procurement Websites, whitepapers for in-demand solutions and Webinars and podcasts, plus advice for writing grant proposals, building bids and responding to RFPs.

"The total economic stimulus package is expected to top $780 billion, and undoubtedly that will create tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars in IT spending,” says Ken Lamneck, Tech Data’s Americas president, in a prepared statement. But questions remain, and Tech Data says it intends to provide the answers to IT reseller and solution provider questions about how to tap into the economic stimulus package.